Puerto Rico Cash Stash Still A Puzzle

VEGA BAJA, PUERTO RICO — Most of the millions are still missing, sending FBI agents scrambling for leads from villagers who won't admit to knowing very much about the buried treasure of Vega Baja.

But it's the talk of the town in this seaside village, where federal agents say at least 10 hefty plastic drums stuffed with as much as $20 million in cash were dug up by local residents about three weeks ago, fueling an Easter season spree by giddily nouveau riche villagers, who began plunking down bricks of greenbacks to buy houses, cars and adult toys of the consumer age.

The conspicuous consumption did not take long to attract attention in a town of narrow streets, thin wallets and prying eyes.

''They weren't pros,'' said Lt. Jose Alvarez of the local Police Department's division of drugs and narcotics, describing those who found and spent part of the buried trove.

''They just began spending and they got caught.''

But police officials say it seems likely that those who buried the cash under several feet of wet, reddish brown earth were anything but amateurs.

Alvarez and the U.S. attorney for Puerto Rico, Daniel Lopez Romo, said in interviews that they thought the money was hidden by a major drug ring that has used Puerto Rico as a shipping point for large parcels of cocaine bound for the United States from South America.

The police say this strong suspicion has made the residents of Vega Baja even more wary of outsiders than usual, because they fear that the drug baron who buried the money will send gunmen in to teach a lesson to those who pinched hidden millions.

Lopez Romo said he would confiscate money that had not been spent if he could prove that it was earned from drug dealing or criminal activity.

But he added that so far no charges had been filed against anyone, since ''finding money'' is not a crime.

If the ownership of the money cannot be proved, he added, those who dug it up could apparently claim it but would have to pay taxes on it.

In a story that seems to grow more bizarre as details emerge, local officials say there appears to be a possibility that the barrels of cash are part of the ill-gained proceeds of a regional drug ring headed by Sonia Berrios, a locally infamous dealer.

According to Lopez Romo, Berrios is a fugitive being sought on numerous counts of drug dealing.

Police officials will not divulge the exact location of the buried cash but say it was an isolated farm in the hills between Vega Baja, about 25 miles from San Juan, and the neighboring town of Vega Alta.

Alvarez said the current theory about the origins of the money and how it was found is that members of the drug ring buried the barrels in a carefully constructed cache, with false bottoms and wooden floors to deflect rainwater.

He said the gang extracted money over several months, but word got out to a group of villagers from the tough working-class neighborhood of La Trocha.

Much to their delight, that group went to the site recently and found a barrel still stuffed with more than $1 million.

But Alvarez said the gang that buried the money probably took out more than $15 million from at least nine other barrels that were found empty at the site by FBI agents.

''The question we're asking is, What is the source of the money and where is the cash?'' Lopez Romo said.